March 30, 2009: The global pharmaceutical and chemical giant Merck is teaming up with Yissum Research Development Co. Ltd., the technology transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to develop a semiconductor nanoparticle technology for display applications.

They will jointly develop an application invented by Uri Banin from the Institute of Chemistry and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at Hebrew University.

Under the terms of the agreement, Merck will license QLight Nanotech’s semiconductor nanoparticle technology for optical applications and will sponsor an R&D program to be conducted by QLight Nanotech over the next three years. QLight Nanotech will contribute its experience in nanoparticle research, particularly in synthesizing and manipulating new nanoparticles, and Merck will contribute its expertise in the specialty materials field and in large-scale production of sophisticated chemical formulations, which will be used for producing large quantities of the nanoparticles developed at QLight Nanotech.

Flat-screen displays are ubiquitous in computer and television screens, and are mainly manufactured based on liquid crystal technology (LCD). QLight Nanotech’s new technology promise to enable development of both flexible and very large displays, including advertising displays, large-scale video and TV walls.